The North East Film Archive is one of a network of regional film archives established to collect, preserve and show film made in, or about the North East of England. Our collections are non-fiction, and date from the early 1900s to the present day, providing a rich record of life in the region over the 20th century. Many of our films are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
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Gymnasts 1957-1962
The British gymnastics champion Nik Stuart wows the crowd at the ICI Billingham Synthonia Club in the 1950s.
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Overview
An exuberant display of muscle, artistry, grace and simple joie de vivre is on show in this sun-warmed Kodachrome home movie of acrobatic gymnastics displays and training at ICI Billingham and summer campsites in North Yorkshire. The juniors are coached by Nik Stuart, British men's gymnastics champion for nine consecutive years from 1956 to 1964, whose elegant guest performance at the Synthonia Club Gala Day in 1957 is enhanced by slow-motion camerawork.
This amateur footage was filmed between 1957 and 1962 by a senior manager at ICI Billingham (Imperial Chemical Industries) who ran a gymnastics section at the works Synthonia Club in his spare time. The summer gymnastics campsites for the ICI Synthonia juniors were located at Brompton on Swale and Gilling West in the Yorkshire Dales, where in 1961 John “Jack” Flaherty, a former member of the British gymnastics team at the 1948 London Olympics, dubbed ‘The Austerity Games’, also joined the team of trainers and is pictured in this film.
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